I have a tendency to thoroughly absorb any activity that allows me to be outside. A few years ago I stumbled on Morel Mushrooms while wandering some unnamed mountain, and through that tiny patch of cone shaped deliciousness a link was forged between my love of hiking and my love of eating. This mushroom finding past time flags me as a real strange bird to some, it’s a spring time activity that will not dislodge from my brain.
There are people out there just like me so I wanted to offer a big hello and a small reminder when the snow retreats things grow, mountain Lilly’s, dandy lions, and mushrooms. Animals get active, from ground squirrels to Grizzly bears. I won the lottery as far as animal encounters go, I was looking for a very sedentary unthreatening yet exhilarating fungus. What I found however was a Sow Griz and her cubs.
You could say I won the lottery because I was forced into observing her at an uncomfortably close distance while she was acting like the very protective mother she is, and perhaps through some divine intervention came out unscathed and properly motivated to cover the uncomfortably long distance to my truck.
How close? There are pictures of her charging tracks at twelve yards. I would like to believe that her main purpose was to give me and my dogs a thorough looking over to distinguish between competion or inconsequence, she could probably tell by the shaking and quivering that we were not in the competition category.
This encounter with mother nature in my mind belongs to the surreal.
My only real advice is if you hunt the snow line for anything plant or animal, always be bear aware….
Any other bear encounters out there? I’d take a good spot for shaggy manes also.